“relentless onslaught of change”.
TechCrunch conducted Mozilla Foundation’s communication chief for a response on the layoffs and they responded in an email that “The Mozilla Foundation is reorganizing teams to increase agility and impact as we accelerate our work to ensure a more open and equitable technical future for us all. That unfortunately means ending some of the work we have historically pursued and eliminating associated roles to bring more focus going forward,”.
Even more so, according to its annual tax filing, the Mozilla Foundation reported to have 60 employees during the 2022 tax year. Yet, at the time of the layoffs, the number of employees was closer to 120 persons, according to TechCrunch. However, Mozilla’s spokesperson did not elaborate further on the discussion.
Mozilla was created out of several organizations, one of them being the Mozilla Corporation which develops Firefox and other well-known technologies. The other corporation is the non-profit Foundation that is also tax-exempt. The organization is used for overseeing Mozilla’s corporate governance structure also setting the browser maker’s policies.
The primary purpose of the Mozilla Foundation is to advocate for privacy, inclusion, and decentralization, as they put it “to create safer, more transparent online experiences for everyone,”, the final goal being an equal and good user experience for all its users.
The layoffs were announced through an email to all employees on October 30, Nabiha Syed, the executive director announced that two of the foundation’s major branches, no longer being part of the company “no longer a part of our structure.”.
The communication chief of Mozilla Foundation also told TechCrunch “Advocacy is still a central tenet of Mozilla Foundation’s work and will be embedded in all the other functional areas,”. Syed also reported that this move is part of a “unified, powerful narrative from the Foundation,”.
Syed also wrote in an email for TechCrunch “Our mission at Mozilla is more high-stakes than ever,” and that “We find ourselves in a relentless onslaught of change in the technology (and broader) world, and the idea of putting people before profit feels increasingly radical.”.
“Navigating this topsy-turvy, distracting time requires laser focus — and sometimes saying goodbye to the excellent work that has gotten us this far because it won’t get us to the next peak. Lofty goals demand hard choices,” added Syed